It divides dads and mom.
It turns parents against the child care providers. It pits bosses vs. subordinates. Priorities battle other priorities. It is the battle over whether or not a kid
should go to school or daycare.
Before getting into policies or rules of thumb, I should
mention no organization I’ve been charged with leading has ever fallen apart
because I missed a day. Or two
days. It can wear on support/office
co-workers, so a sub is best if possible.
No matter how important I think I am, life goes on without me.
It also seems that it is better to call it off early. Half of the problems I’ve run into when I’ve
had to stay home with the kids are due to not having a plan in place and trying
to juggle things too quickly. My advice
is make a call the night before and then be a peace with it. Contact appointments, email instructions, and
get everything straight and then avoid the taxing decision the following
morning.
Who should stay home?
A straight on and off scale is equal, but not necessarily
fair. If Parent A has a big presentation
that cannot be accomplished by someone else and is up, it makes more sense for
the parent without the big presentation to take the day off. However, this can lead to one parent taking
off more than the other (if both work).
No one wants to keep score. A
general ledger of who stayed home and who did not seems like it could help (I
have never done it, but it sounds like it could be helpful).
Why a child should stay home seems pretty standard across
child care centers. Fevers over 100,
vomiting, diarrhea that is getting loose, rashes, and general discomfort all
are reasons my kids have been asked to stay home. Of course, on days when I have a particularly
long checklist, I am skeptical of the 100 degrees; I feel like the vomiting is
food poisoning and will go away; and the diarrhea is something they ate.
In the end, when the work has been transferred or left for
another day, I get home and I am glad I am there with my miserable child. As someone who has tried to manage healthy
and sick children at the same time, I know that is really hard. If I ran a school or day care center, I would
not want the sick people around either.
There’s the germ reason. There also
is the fact that kids are just plain whiny when they are ill. I wish it wasn’t true, but it is. It’s hard to take care of 6, 8, or 10 kids
when my kid is whining their head off
Stress is part of these decisions. One way I’ve found to reduce stress in these
situations is to be computer accessible (easy) and to make sure there are not
many things that cannot be done without me at my office. If people know how to do my job when I am not
there, I don’t feel as guilty staying home.
This essay isn’t to say, at some point next winter, you won’t
be pulling your hair out about your child being
Does it help to have one kid go to school/childcare to keep
him/her healthy?
The answer is..I don’t know.
The not sick child eventually will have to come home. To the sick child. In theory, separating the sick from the well
should improve the chances of contamination.
Good theory. For me, it never works.
By the time I load all the kids into the ride, go to child care, and
then go back, the sick kid is miserable.
The well kid misses his brother and does not want to be left at child
care. AND..the well kid gets sick
because children under 5 are germy creatures.
They play by each other. The eat
each other’s food. It never works out
for me. If the child care was five
minutes from my house, it might be worth it.
20 minutes? Not worth it. I just stress keeping away from the sicko.
What are back up back up plans?
It is nice to have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and
friendly neighbors able to pick up the slack on really hectic days. If a parent can stay home, I advise them to
do so. If it is a must go to work day, a
back up plan must be present. There are “rent
a nurse” services, but they are UBER expensive. Relatives, especially retired ones, seem to
be best.
Thanks for reading!!
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